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Apa fire, December 2025 Gwer West, Apa

Out · last detection 19 Dec 2025, 12:46 UTC

The fire started on 16 December 2025 in Apa, Nigeria, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,688 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 44th largest in Benue since 2016 (of 83 with a page). Number 178 in Nigeria in 2025, of 294.

The power measured by the satellite is low (27.1 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
2,688ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
16 Dec 2025 – 20 Dec 2025
Municipalities hit
2
local government areas
Started on
16 Dec
2025
Heat detections
36
in a single hotspot: 27 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
334MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Dec 2025
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Dec20 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

171819

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

38°high
29km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 58 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

63% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 284 ha in 2016, 803 ha in 2017, 457 ha in 2019, 301 ha in 2022, 160 ha in 2023, 708 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,704 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Gwer West
    1,952 ha reached on 17 Dec
    1.6 %
  2. Apa where it started
    755 ha reached on 13 Dec
    0.7 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

The weather day by day

ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
16 Dec 37.2 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
17 Dec 36.2 °C 18 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
18 Dec 36.1 °C 25 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
19 Dec 36.9 °C 25 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
20 Dec 37.8 °C 25 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
21 Dec after 37.2 °C 29 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
22 Dec after 35.6 °C 38 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Dec after 37.8 °C 34 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
24 Dec after 36.7 °C 36 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Dec after 37.3 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
26 Dec after 37.3 °C 34 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Dec after 36.8 °C 36 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Dec after 36.8 °C 33 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
29 Dec after 38.0 °C 33 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
30 Dec after 36.7 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 38

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 9 Dec 2025
After · 27 Dec 2025

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 18 December 2025 the air beside the fire reached 116 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 69: 4.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak116 µg/m³
Days over the guideline10 days
PM10286 µg/m³
Optical depth0.63
14151617181920212223
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 36Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Nigeria ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Apa fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 December 2025 and 20 December 2025: 5 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,688 hectares (26.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Gwer West (1,952 ha, 1.6 %); Apa (755 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 29 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Nigeria (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

Where to verify it

A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.

Emergency number: 112

Satellite cross-check

Does something look wrong on this page?

This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.

Report an error
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We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 112.

Where this data comes from

The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.